David John Copeland (born May 15, 1976) is a former member of the British National Socialist Movement, who became known as the "London Nail Bomber" after a 13-day bombing campaign in April 1999 aimed at London's black, Bangladeshi and gay communities.

Copeland placed homemade nail bombs at targets in London, each containing up to 1,500 four-inch nails, on three occasions before he was arrested. Firstly, on 17 April outside a supermarket in Electric Avenue, Brixton, an area of South London with a large black population; then on 24 April in Brick Lane in the East End of London, which has a large South Asian community; and finally on 30 April in the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho's Old Compton Street, the heart of London's gay community. The bombs killed three, including a pregnant woman, and injured 129, four of whom lost limbs.[1] No warnings were given.

Although Copeland was diagnosed by five psychiatrists as having paranoid schizophrenia and a consultant concluded he had a personality disorder, his plea of diminished responsibility was not accepted by the prosecution, which was under pressure not to concede to his pleas of guilty to manslaughter.[2] He was convicted of murder on June 30, 2000, and was sentenced to six concurrent terms of life imprisonment. The trial judge spoke of his doubt whether it would ever be safe for Copeland to be released.[3]

Early lifeCopeland was born in Isleworth, in the London Borough of Hounslow, but for most of his childhood he lived in Yateley, Hampshire. He attended Yateley School and passed seven GCSEs on leaving in 1992.

He apparently resented the fact that he was small for his age, and was given the nickname "Mr. Angry."[4]

After his arrest in 1999, he told psychiatrists that he had started having sadistic dreams when he was about 12, including dreams or fantasies that he had been reincarnated as an SS officer with access to women as slaves.[5] He left school in 1992 to be an apprentice engineer, and became involved in petty crime, drinking, and taking drugs, including heroin. He also took part in acts of football hooliganism with Portsmouth Football Club's notorious hooligan firm - the 6.57 Crew.

In court, it was reported[citation needed] that Copeland never had a girlfriend, and this caused him to fear that people might think he was a homosexual.

In May 1997, at the age of 21, he joined the British National Party, a far right, white supremacist party. Copeland acted as a steward at a BNP meeting, in the course of which he came into contact with the BNP leadership and was photographed standing next to John Tyndall, the then leader of the BNP. It was during this period that Copeland read The Turner Diaries, and first learned how to make bombs using fireworks with alarm clocks as timers after downloading a so-called terrorists' handbook from the internet.

In 1998, Copeland left the BNP, outraged by their democratic involvement strategy. He then joined the smaller, violent and openly Neo Nazi, National Socialist Movement, becoming its regional leader for Hampshire just weeks before the start of his bombing campaign. It was around this time that he visited his family doctor and was prescribed anti-depressants after telling the doctor he felt he was "losing his mind".[2]

Bombings

X-rays show a nail from one of Copeland's bombs embedded in a baby's brain.Copeland's first attack, on Saturday, April 17, 1999, was in Electric Avenue, Brixton.

Copeland made his bomb using explosives from fireworks. He taped it inside a sports bag before priming it and planting it outside the Iceland supermarket, on the corner of Electric Avenue. The market traders became suspicious, and moved it several times before it detonated just as the police arrived, at 5:25 in the evening. Fifty people were injured, many of them seriously because of the four-inch nails Copeland had packed around the bomb. One victim was a 23-month-old toddler who had a nail driven through his skull into his brain (see right), though he is reported to have made a full recovery.

Andrea Dykes, four months pregnant, was killed, and her husband, Julian, seriously injured.Copeland's second bomb, on the following Saturday, April 24, was aimed at Brick Lane, the centre of the Bengali area in the east end of London. There is a famous Brick Lane street market on Sundays, but Copeland mistakenly tried to plant the bomb on Saturday, when the street was less busy. Unwilling to change the timer on the bomb, he left it instead in Hanbury Street, where it exploded. Thirteen people were injured, but there were no fatalities.

Copeland's third and final bomb was planted and exploded on the evening of April 30, in the crowded Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, the centre of London's gay village. Andrea Dykes, 27, who was four months pregnant with her first child, died along with her friends and hosts for the evening, Nick Moore, 31, and John Light, 32, who was to be the baby's godfather. Andrea's husband, Julian, was seriously injured. The four friends from Essex had met up in the Admiral Duncan to celebrate Andrea's pregnancy, when the bomb exploded after being taped inside a sports bag and left near the bar. Seventy-nine people were injured, many of them seriously. Four of the survivors had to have limbs amputated.

Capture and convictionThe Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Metropolitan Police Service identified Copeland from CCTV footage of Brixton. The image was given wide publicity on April 29 which caused Copeland to bring forward his bombing of the Admiral Duncan to Friday evening. Paul Mifsud, a work colleague of Copeland, recognized him and alerted the police about an hour and 20 minutes before the bombing.

Copeland was arrested that night once the police obtained his address, a rented room in Farnborough, Hampshire. He admitted carrying out the three bombings as soon as he was arrested. His mental state was assessed at Broadmoor Hospital, but remained a matter of dispute at his trial.

The jury convicted him of three murders and three offences of planting bombs, and he was sentenced to six life sentences on June 30, 2000.[6] The trial judge spoke of his doubt that it would ever be safe to release Copeland. Almost seven years later, on 2 March 2007, the High Court decided that Copeland should remain in prison for at least 50 years, effectively ruling out his release until at least 2049 at the age of 73. [7] He is currently confined in Broadmoor Hospital.[8]

MotivationCopeland maintained he had worked alone and had not discussed his plans with anyone. During police interviews, he admitted holding neo-Nazi views, and talked of his desire to spread fear and to trigger a race war. He told police "My main intent was to spread fear, resentment and hatred throughout this country, it was to cause a racial war." He also stated "There'd be a backlash from the ethnic minorities, I'd just be the spark that would set fire to this country." After his arrest, Copeland wrote to BBC correspondent Graeme McLagan: "I bomb the blacks, Pakis, degenerates. I would have bombed the Jews as well if I'd got a chance."

When asked by the police why he had targeted Black and Asian ethnic minorities he replied: "Because I don't like them, I want them out of this country, I believe in the master race."[9]

On 29 September 2002, the News of the World revealed that Copeland had sent a letter full of racially offensive words to two members of the gang linked to the 1993 murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence following their conviction and imprisonment for attacking a black policeman. He had been allowed to send a letter to the pair despite being supervised by staff at Broadmoor while he typed out the letter on a computer and having his letter vetted before it was sent in the post.[10]